Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving. I thought about posting some sort of thankfulness post, just cause it seems like it's what you should probably be doing on this day every year. But what better way to show thanks as an HP ambassador than to crank out the 15, the very proclamation of thanks for a brilliantly wonderful regular season of basketball?

Enjoy the day everyone, take in some ball (round or foot, whichever you prefer), and, y'know, be thankful.

REASONS TO WATCH THE GAMES OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION TONIGHT:

Wiz Fans: Did You Know That Your Interim Coach is Well-Schooled in the Dark Arts?:

Magic at Wizards

After watching the Wiz actually, well, win a game for once, I've come to one conclusion: Ed Tapscott is a necromancer. He mosied in to a locker room of lifeless corpses, waved his hands around, spoke in tongues, and now they're actually playing like they give a damn. No disrespect to Eddie Jordan, but that's one hell of a magic act. But among the walking dead, the most significant is Caron Butler, who finally put together his first Butleresque performance of the season. He had the efficiency, the scoring, the leadership, and he's always got the tought juice, and it was nice to see him put it all together. But there's just a tiny problem: while Biedrins is good, he's not really equipped or skilled in a way that allows him to dominate a game. I don't think anyone would say that about Dwight Howard. Wins against teams with good big men are not created equal. But that doesn't mean we can't catch a good game of an inspired Washington squad against an Orlando team recovering from a wire-to-wire slugfest with Philly. Could this be the ever elusive win #3 for DC? (No.) Tune in to find out!

8:00 EST, TNT

Two Teams, Both Alike in Dignity, in Fair Denver, Where We Lay Our Scene

Hornets at Nuggets

So maybe there isn't any star crossing, hemlock, or lyric, but it's strange that at this juncture Denver and NOLA find themselves in the same boat. Both middle of the pack playoff teams in the West, with Denver's record far better than it should be and New Orleans' development arrested. I was talking to Graydon yesterday and we were trying to wrap our heads around what exactly is going on with the Hornets. I'm not sure that there's a clear answer. The seemingly unstoppable pick and roll game they had established still works, Chris Paul is a magician, and they didn't lose any significant pieces. But some combination of teams taking Peja out of the game fairly easily, Chandler being hobbled just enough to make a difference, and coaches understanding how to tech against David West after his breakout season. But in spite of all that, they're still good enough to take down the Nuggs...right? I'm not sold that throwing Chauncey into the lineup suddenly creates order from chaos, Iverson or no. But it's hard to argue with that win over Boston, and maybe I'm just being crotchety. +1 to everyone who can make it through the second half of this one after stuffing themselves silly, and +2 if it's a blowout.